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This turns out to be more difficult than I had expected. I just
thought that what I had noticed was a well-known fact both for
Australian and New Zeland collectors. My main interest so far was the
fact that since a couple of years [around 1992] several countries
started issuing coil-stamps put in boxes of 100 pieces. You can find
them in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands etc. The
market-leader seemed to be the Australian firm [or group of printers,
I'm not quite sure] under the name 'Sprintpak'. They are still ahead
of other manufacturers but had to give some way to the Dutch printing
house of JESSP [Joh. Ensched? en Zonen, Security Stamp Printing]. They
trade-mark seems to be the use of a very fine screen for
offset-litho-litho that might be confused with a 'stochastic screen'.
Hence my description: fake of pseudo-stochastic.
There are 2 standard stamp sizes used for Australia - the smaller
size hardly ever been used again - in combination with traditional
comb-perforation and PVA gum:
- medium size 30x25mm
- comb perforation 14.0:14.4.
- large size 26x37.5mm
- comb perforation 14.6:13.86
For the self-adhesive stamps printed in coils/coills, hang and
sell cards of 5, [hang and sell] booklets of 10 and booklets of 20 the
following types of kiss die-cut were used:
- medium size
- 16/19 teeth
- corners are 'comb-perforation like', circle/hole in the very
corner
- 13/16 teeth
- corners are 'line-perforation like', hill/tooth in the very
corner - this is what Rodney calls 'crowned'.
- a joint between two circles/holes, a tooth normally has been
torn between two adjacent stamps, with the die-cut perfs the top of
the tooth is rounded off: 'mountain'. The distance between half-way
the left slope to the right slope is smaller than across the 'valley'.
- a sinusoid wave pattern, 'valley' and 'hill' are more or lesss
point-symmetric (turn 180 degrees and 'valley' becomes 'hill' and vice
versa); there are at least two different degrees of sloping! Best
recognised when you look close at the 'crowns'.....
- large size
- 21/14 teeth
- corners are 'line-perforation like', hill/tooth in the very
corner; a joint between two circles/holes, a tooth normally has been
torn between two adjacent stamps, with the die-cut perfs the top of
the tooth is rounded off: 'mountain'. The distance between half-way
the left slope to the right slope is smaller than across the 'valley'.
- 20/14 teeth
- corners are 'line-perforation like', hill/tooth in the very
corner; a sinusoid wave pattern, 'valley' and 'hill' are more or lesss
point-symmetric (turn 180 degrees and 'valley' becomes 'hill' and vice
versa); there are at least two different degrees of sloping! Best
recognised when you look close at the 'crowns'.....
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